We’ve known for some time that certain animals can navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field, but how they did it was a mystery.
Well, a little bit of that mystery may now be solved via a rather interesting experiment conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Tokyo.
You can find a detailed description of the experiment here but basically what it showed was that waving a magnet over a bunch of cells every 4 seconds caused the fluorescence [light emitting] of those cells to dim, proof positive that it was the magnet – ie magnetism – causing the effect. The scientists think this dimming was caused by the ‘radical pair mechanism’ at work in the cells:
“Essentially, if certain molecules are excited by light, electrons can jump between them to their neighbors. That can create pairs of molecules with a single electron each, known as a radical pair. If the electrons in those molecules have matching spin states, they will undergo chemical reactions slowly, and if they’re opposites the reactions occur faster.” [Emphasis is mine]
https://newatlas.com/biology/live-cells-respond-magnetic-fields/
So why does this rather obscure discovery excite me so much? Because of that old quote from Hamlet:
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/quickquotes/quickquotehamletdreamt.html
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
– Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio
Change the word ‘philosophy’ to ‘science’, and Shakespeare could have been describing how new discoveries are always expanding the boundaries of what we know about the real world.
For a science fiction writer like myself, this is manna from heaven because in one hundred years time, some bright spark may discover that telepathy is not so much supernatural as supranatural! [Don’t hit me! I’m using supranatural as a description of something that doesn’t fit into the physics of the normal world…like quantum mechanics. As I’m no physicist, however, I’ll submit to those who know better.]
Okay, I’ll stop there before I get too carried away, but you can see why I find these kinds of discoveries so exciting.
Take care and stay well,
-hugs-
Meeks
January 12th, 2021 at 2:56 am
Oh yes. Just because we don’t understand something and can’t explain it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I have this argument with my ex-son-in-law (note “ex”) all the time when discussing magic – like telepathy, all forms of kinesis, or the planet Earth having a sentient consciousness. If he lived in the 1700’s he wouldn’t believe in the possibility of cell phones, televisions, airplanes, etc. Those would all have been impossible and deemed “magical.” Cool discovery, Andrea.
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January 12th, 2021 at 9:46 am
Exactly! We take technology so much for granted that we can’t see how magical it actually is. And interesting point, how many of us would be capable of fixing this tech for ourselves? I’d guess very few. That makes tradies and technicians modern day wizards. It also means that after an apocalypse, we’d lose most of our ‘knowledge’ within two generations, three at the most. Then we’d find old books that mention cars and planes and light switches, and we’d call it magic again.
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January 13th, 2021 at 4:52 am
Makes me think of Atlantis. We’re relegated the “supposed” advances of that civilization to legend.
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January 13th, 2021 at 7:25 am
I guess every civilization believes its own advances are the pinnacle of what can be achieved. Who knows what has been lost in the past?
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January 11th, 2021 at 4:43 am
To quote Arthur C. Clarke, “Magic is science that we don’t understand, yet.”
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January 11th, 2021 at 8:46 am
Yes! I doubt science will ever prove the existence of ghosts, but I’m sure it’ll discover some weird traits we dismiss as nonsense now. At least I hope so. Telekinesis would be so much fun. 😀
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January 10th, 2021 at 4:26 am
Coolio. Thanks.
More and more evidence the world and its marvels boil down to mundane physics and chemistry. We’re just bags of hyper-animated elements. Although, there’s this: (Richard Feynman is a wizard!) https://youtu.be/wMFPe-DwULM
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January 10th, 2021 at 8:02 am
I wish I could hit the Like button a million times. That video was brilliant. I’ve known for a long time that the reality we ‘feel’ is just a soup of molecules, which are themselves, patterns of electrons etc etc, but I did not have a clue that the feel of ‘hardness’ in an object is actually a force repelling my body. I suddenly feel as if my mind has been turned inside out and given a good spring clean. 🙂
Thank you!!
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January 10th, 2021 at 9:52 am
But, why?
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January 11th, 2021 at 8:51 am
Erm…why did my brain need a good spring clean?? Or why did I not know it before?
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January 11th, 2021 at 8:54 am
No, no, no. I was kidding, spinning off the video.
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January 11th, 2021 at 8:58 am
Oh! Phew. Sorry, I tend to be a bit literal at times.
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January 9th, 2021 at 11:25 pm
Certainly very interesting – there obviously has to be a scientific mechanism to enable migration patterns. And talking of scientific, in Shakespeare’s day ‘philosophy’ was the word used for what we now think of as science.
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January 10th, 2021 at 8:03 am
-blinks- I did not know that, Mick! Isn’t it strange how language changes? Thank you. I’ve now learned two exciting things today. -dance-
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January 9th, 2021 at 9:48 pm
that is interesting. Thank you for sharing.
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January 9th, 2021 at 11:03 pm
My pleasure. 🙂
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January 9th, 2021 at 8:04 pm
Love this! I am not much of a science buff but the little I do know makes me think that philosophy and science are two sides of the same coin — or perhaps magnetic field. Either way, this news is certainly cause for creative inspiration!
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January 9th, 2021 at 11:12 pm
Yes! The method used in both relies on logic. Well, a whole lot more as well but they’re mental disciplines. As for that magnetic field…mwahaha. I wonder if I could come up with a goose that lost its sense of direction? Ahem, says the woman with next to none of her own. lol
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January 10th, 2021 at 1:41 pm
Well, if you stuck a magnet in each ear, 😀 or as earrings, had some sort of digital focal point about … hmm, lets say a meter in front of you, and an implant that digested (analysed) the data, along with your intended destination, superimposed it onto a topographical map which was then projected it onto a HUD, you’d be home and hosed! 😀
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January 11th, 2021 at 8:49 am
-grin- I think you should patent that, Widds. 🙂 Seriously, it’s just a matter of time that the technology becomes so commonplace, and cheap, that we’ll be wearing our tech and wondering how the primitives managed with mobile phones!
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